As she walked, stiff as a grenadier, and almost as tall, she passed by the new building without turning her head even to glance at it, and going directly up to the front door of the old house, she rang the bell.
As Mrs. Cliff\'s domestic household were all engaged in the new part of the building, the bell was not heard, and after waiting nearly a minute, Miss Shott rang it again with such vigor that the door was soon opened by a maid, who informed her that Mrs. Cliff was not at home, but that Miss Croup was in.
"Very well," said Miss Shott, "I\'ll see her!" and, passing the servant, she entered the old parlor. The maid followed her.
"There\'s no fire here," she said. "Won\'t you please walk into the other part of the house, which is heated? Miss Croup is over there."
"No!" said Miss Shott, seating herself upon the sofa. "This suits me very well, and Willy Croup can come to me here as well as anywhere else!"
Presently Willy arrived, wishing very much that she also had been out.
"Do come over to the other parlor, Miss Shott!" said she. "There\'s no furnace heat here because Mrs. Cliff didn\'t want the old house altered, and we use this room so little that we haven\'t made a fire."
"I thought you had the chimney put in order!" said Miss Shott, without moving from her seat. "Doesn\'t it work right?"
Willy assured her visitor that the chimney was in good condition so far as she knew, and repeated her[Pg 130] invitation to come into a warmer room, but to this Miss Shott paid no attention.
"It\'s an old saying," said she, "that a bad chimney saves fuel!—I understand that you\'ve all been to New York shopping?"
"Yes," said Willy, laughing. "It was a kind of shopping, but that\'s not exactly what I\'d call it!" And perceiving that Miss Shott intended to remain where she was, she took a seat.
"Well, of course," said Miss Shott, "everybody\'s got to act according to their own judgments and consciences! If I was going to buy winter things, I\'d do what I could to help the business of my own town, and if I did happen to want anything I couldn\'t get here, I\'d surely go to Harrington, where the people might almost be called neighbors!"
Willy laughed outright. "Oh, Miss Shott," she said, "you couldn\'t buy the things we bought, in Harrington! I don\'t believe they could be found in Boston!"
"I was speaking about myself," said Miss Nancy. "I could find anything I wanted in Harrington, and if my wants went ahead of what they had there, I should say that my wants were going too far and ought to be curbed! And so you took those poor old Thorpedyke women with you. I expect they must be nearly fagged out. I don\'t see how the oldest one ever stood being dragged from store to store all over New York, as she must have been! She\'s a pretty old woman and can\'t be expected to stand even what another woman, younger than she is, but old enough, and excited by having[Pg 131] money to spend, can stand! It\'s a wonder to me that you brought her back alive!"
"Miss Eleanor came back a great deal better than she was when she left!" exclaimed Willy, indignantly. "She\'ll tell you, if you ask her, that that visit to New York did her a great deal of good!"
"No, she won\'t!" said Miss Shott, "for she don\'t speak to me. It\'s been two years since I had anything to do with her!"
Willy knew all about the quarrel between the Thorpedyke ladies and Nancy, and wished to change the subject.
"Don\'t you want to go and look at the new part of the house?" she said. "Perhaps you\'d like to see the things we\'ve bought in New York, and it\'s cold here!"
To this invitation and the subsequent remark Miss Shott paid no attention. She did not intend to give Willy the pleasure of showing her over the house, and it was not at all necessary, for she had seen nearly everything in it.
During the absence of Mrs. Cliff she had made many visits to the house, and, as she was acquainted with the woman who had been left in charge, she had examined every room, from ground to roof, and had scrutinized and criticised the carpets as they had been laid and the furniture as it had been put in place.
She saw that Willy was beginning to shiver a little, and was well satisfied that she should feel cold. It would help take the conceit out of her. As for herself, she wore a warm cloak and did not mind a cold room.[Pg 132]
"I\'m told," she said, "that Mrs. Cliff\'s putting up a new stable. What was the matter with the old one?"
"It wasn\'t big enough," said Willy.
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CHAPTER XIV WILLY CROUP AS A PHILANTHROPIC DIPLOMATIST
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CHAPTER XVI MR. BURKE MAKES A CALL
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